West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is putting his stamp on his football program.
That extends to plenty of different areas, including instilling a hard-edge mentality across the roster on top of the installation of the base schemes on all three sides of the ball.
And as part of that, will come a shift in not only how the Mountaineers will practice but when. It’s been well documented that Rodriguez runs a hard-nosed, tough and fast-paced practice where the program attempts to squeeze in as many reps as possible while constantly moving.
There’s no wasted time and Rodriguez has even mentioned that he wants to squeeze in around five hours of practice into a two-hour block.
And it isn’t just talk either.
“He's not lying when he says that. So everything's moving really, really quickly, and if you're not up to speed and you're not moving at the speed that you need to be, then you're going to fall behind,” said punter Oliver Straw.
That won’t be the only change to practices either as Rodriguez plans to move the sessions themselves from the morning where they were at the end of the previous regime to the afternoon.
It was too late to adjust that during this past spring with classes already set, but beginning in the summer, that will shift back to the afternoon. That is where Rodriguez has held practice for most of his career, outside a few examples such as when he was at Arizona without the use of an indoor.
“But I didn’t like it. So, I don’t like it now,” he said.
While Rodriguez understands why some coaches utilize the morning practices, he believes that moving the sessions to the afternoon matches more closely with when the Mountaineers will play their games. He argues that games simply aren’t being played at 7 or 8 a.m.
“I like our guys to get used to the time that we play, which is usually in the afternoon. So, that's the main reason we'll be changing,” he said.
And with the majority of those classes coming online anyway, that change is set to go into effect this summer, which will shift the workouts to the afternoon.
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